Middlebury men’s baseball struggled the past two weeks, losing series to both Amherst and Hamilton. Playoff hopes hung in the balance, and something had to be done. On the second floor of Proctor Dining Hall, the team’s small cohort of juniors and seniors met to inspire an end to the skid. Then this weekend, something clicked: The Panthers swept Wesleyan in a three-game series, all but guaranteeing themselves a spot in the playoffs.
“We were putting a little too much pressure on ourselves at the plate and on the mound,” head coach Mike Leonard explained about the last few series. “Little mistakes were snowballing. Guys just had to kind of get back to trusting all the work that they had done”
The first game started slowly for the Panthers, who were probably still coming to terms with spending a Friday night in dreary Middletown, CT. So, the Wesleyan ballplayers had the initial advantage.
In the top of the second, Middlebury pitcher Emmet George ’27 found himself in early trouble. Thanks to a passed ball and a wild pitch, Wesleyan plated five runs. George settled in during the third and fourth innings, but gave up one run in the fifth. Then, the Middlebury bats came alive.
An errant throw by the Wesleyan pitcher at the top of the sixth allowed Brayden Mathews ’26 to reach first. Back-to-back doubles cut the deficit to 6-3 and knocked Wesleyan’s starting pitcher out of the game. Henry Ayers ’29 (slashing .462/.504/.679 on the season) followed it up with another double to make it 6-4, before a single by Joe Basso ’27 capped off the rally– the Panthers only trailing by one.
Wesleyan’s sloppy fielding punished them again in the seventh. Anthony Pellagrini ’27 started the inning with an eight-pitch walk, followed by Brayden Mathews ’26 reaching on an error by the Wesleyan shortstop. The next at bat, another throwing error from the pitcher brought Pellagrini home to score. Tie ballgame.
Over the course of the weekend, Wesleyan committed 10 errors across three games. Even little league players know that bad defense is the death of a baseball team —and that good defense makes up the best teams. In the MLB, the World Series winners consistently rank among the league’s top third in fielding percentage. Last year’s champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, committed 61 errors – the fewest in the majors.
For the Panthers, Wesleyan’s miscues were the spark they were looking for. Yet another throwing error let Ayers reach first base in the top of the eighth. After two quick outs, Pellagrini roped a double down the left field line to give Middlebury the 7-6 lead. Thanks to four one-hit innings by Skylar Platt ’27 and Christian Zebrowski ’28, a stalwart for the Panthers out of the bullpen this season, Middlebury held on for the comeback win. On to Saturday’s doubleheader.
Chase Zidlicky ’29 dominated the first game, tossing a seven-inning complete game shutout, scattering two hits with eight strikeouts. The Panthers' bats backed him up, putting four runs on the board after 2 innings. By the top of the seventh, it was 8-0 Panthers.
“I felt like my command was all there for all my pitches.” Zidlicky reflected.
Zidlicky was tossing a perfect game until a controversial call in the fifth inning. After retiring the first hitter, Zidlicky’s 3–2 pitch on the Wesleyan catcher seemed to catch the plate, but the umpire called it a ball. The Middlebury bench erupted in protest to the call, but the perfect game would have been broken up with a double from the next batter, regardless.
Zidlicky pitched confidently into the bottom of the seventh, which started with a Wesleyan single. Zidlicky responded quickly with two strikeouts, and on his 86th pitch, he forced a groundout to cap off his best start in navy and white.
“I had to go out there and compete, and just do it for the team,” Zidlicky said about his performance.
Leonard had high praise for the freshman: “He did an outstanding job of throwing multiple pictures for strikes, and you know he's capable of that almost every time.”
In the second game, Wesleyan’s defensive struggles continued to haunt them. In the first inning, a muffed throw from the pitcher allowed Ayers to reach and then later score off a groundout from Sam Gersch ’29. In the third, Ayers doubled and scored on Basso's double. Basso then scored on a throwing error from the first baseman to make it 3-0 Panthers.
The contest was closer than the 7-3 score. Wesleyan racked up a total of 13 hits — most of them being singles — against the four Middlebury pitchers. Alex Faust ’29 started the game with three scoreless innings before Stefano Yozzo ’27 tossed four innings of two-run ball (only one earned). Dylan Knightly ’26 entered for the eighth inning, where he tied the record for pitching appearances with the Panthers at 53. The unflappable Zebrowski shut the door in the ninth on zero days’ rest.
The three wins bring Middlebury’s record to 17–10, and they seem to be hitting their stride heading into the final stretch of the season. This weekend, they’ll play at home against Williams College, who have only nine wins all season. Afterwards, the Panthers will have their eyes set on the NESCAC playoffs.
"We want to be a championship caliber team, and that comes with some pressure,” Leonard said. “It’s about trying to reframe that as a privilege.”
